Thursday, May 2, 2013

Star Value - A Tutorial for Between Heaven and Texas

Happy Friday Everyone!!! Today is my stop on the Between Heaven and Texas Blog Hop!! I am so happy to be part of this awesome hop and to share with you my block tutorial, Star Value. Star Value is a super fun block that is made with just squares and half square triangles. And with 5 size options it is sure to work for any project you have in mind :) Don't you just love the low volume scrappy background, and plenty of scrappy color pop! Star Value will have you pulling out your scrap bins and getting your scrap busting groove on!!!

And to get an idea of how this block will look in a finished quilt . . . I drafted up a little EQ7 drawing. So fun, huh!!! My bee will be making this block for me this month and I can't wait to see all of those fabulous scrappy blocks. It is going to be amazing, I just know it!!

So before I get all wound up over scrappy goodness, let me tell you a bit about Between Heaven and Texas.

Between Heaven and Texas is the Prequel to Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court Quilts series. I have not yet had an opportunity to read my copy, but my Mother-In-Law did and she found it thoroughly enjoyable!! Here's is what others are saying about it . . .

“This book is wrapped around my heart with all the love, warmth, and beauty of a favorite family quilt. I can’t stop thinking about it! I’m in love with Mary Dell Templeton, and I’m in love with Too Much, Texas.” – Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times Bestselling author

“Brilliant . . . the characters thunder with life right off the page and into your heart in this quintessential story of family, forgiveness, and nobility. I just adored every single page!” — Dorthea Benton Frank, New York Times Bestselling author of “Porch Lights”

“A book that brims with laughter and laser-sharp insight.” – Kristan Higgins, New York Times This is the luminous prequel to Marie’s beloved Cobbled Court Quilts series

Sounds fantastic, right!!! And stick with me to the end, because it just might be your lucky day to win your own copy of Between Heaven and Texas!!!

Along with this blog hop, You can also help out others. How so?? Simple, just make an extra star block and donate it to the Linus Connection. The Linus foundation is an organization based in Austin, TX whose mission is to make and deliver blankets to children in crisis situations in the Texas area. Contact Jennifer at sewhooked@gmail.com for more info or visit thelinusconnection.org.

Alright, I promised you a Star Value tutorial so let's get to it!!!

**To see a simplified PDF Printer Friendly Version of this Tutorial please visit my Craftsy shop where The Star Value PDF it is available for Free Download!!

First, you will need to decide what size block you would like to make!! The block shown is a 20" block.

So once you are done cutting you should have piles that look something like this. As you can see, the scrappier the better!!

The fun thing about this block is it only takes Half Square triangles and the squares you have already cut. So let's start by making some Half Square Triangles. Match your blocks cut for Half Square Triangles into the following sets - 8 matching color/white sets, 8 grey/white sets, and 4 any color/grey sets.

Hint - to save time be sure and repeat each of the sub-steps in an assembly line fashion.

On the wrong side of the darker fabric using your ruler, draw a pen line diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.

Lay your darker square on your lighter square with rights sides together. Pin both sides adjacent to that drawn line. Make sure to put them out far enough that your presser foot won't hit them as you sew on by :) Stitch a 1/4" seam along both sides of the drawn line (the black lines represent your stitching lines :)

And remember, you are doing these assembly line so go ahead and chain stitch all the sets on the right hand side of the line, and then go back and do all the sets on the left hand side.

And now you are ready to trim up your HST. The following are the trim sizes for each size block
12" - 2" square 16" - 2 1/2" square 20" - 3" square 24" - 3 1/2" square 28" - 4" square
I will use the 3" trim for the example. Start by aligning the 45 degree line on your square ruler with the seam line on your half square triangle. Make sure that the raw edges of the half square triangle are over the 3" line's on your ruler. Trim the 2 sides along the edge of the ruler.

Now spin your block 180 degrees. Once again, align the 45 degree line on your ruler with the seam line on your half square triangle. Align the raw edges of the half square triangle under the ruler on the 3" lines on your ruler. Trim the 2 sides along the edge of the ruler.

And now you have Perfect Half Square Triangles. They take a bit to trim but are totally worth it for perfect points!!

You should have 40 Half Square Triangles total.

And now you are ready to start assembling your block!! Note - It's easy to get turned around with this block so I find it is always easiest to lay each step out so things don't get turned around. (And even with that, I still unpicked a seam or 2 :) Start by laying out 4 sets of color/white HST's with the matching color squares and 4 white color squares as follows.

I find the easiest way to piece this is to sew the squares into 4 quadrants of 4 first. So start by placing the the first square in each row onto the second square and the third squares onto the fourth squares with right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along all the edges. (Shown in upper left corner). Press the seams of each quadrant in opposite directions. (Shown in upper right corner). Now place the top row in each of the 4 quadrants onto the bottom row. Nest the center seam and pin in place. Sew a 1/4" seam along pinned edge of all 4 quadrants (Shown in bottom left corner.) Press the seams open. (shown in bottom right corner.)

And now you should have 4 quadrants of 4 pieced squares. And now you can sew those 4 quadrants together.

Place the left hand blocks onto the right hand blocks with right sides together. Once again, nest the center seam and pin in place. Sew a 1/4" seam along pinned edge. Press your seams open.

**Note, when you are sewing this seam, if you make sure to cross your seam directly at the bottom of the little white triangle created in the seam you will get a perfect point every time :)

Now just place the top row onto the bottom, and be sure to align and pin each seam in place. Sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge and then press the seam open.

And your center star is complete!! Set this aside for the moment.

And now, you are ready to do the diamond points. This is the exact same process as before of making quadrants into blocks. And note - You will be making 4 of these so assembly line fashion again will save you time. For each set gather up 4 grey/white HST's and 2 Grey/color HST's and lay them out as follows.

This time I placed the the second square in each row onto the first square and the fourth square onto the thrird squares with right sides together and sewed a 1/4" seam along all the edges. (it's fun to mix it up a bit). Press the seams of each quadrant in opposite directions. Then place the top row in each of the 2 quadrants onto the bottom row and nest and pin the center seam and sew a 1/4" seam along the pinned edge. Press the seams open.

Place the right hand blocks onto the left hand block with right sides together. Once again, nest the center seam and pin in place. Sew a 1/4" seam along pinned edge. Press your seams open. Remember to make a total of 4 of these units.

And all you have left is the corners. And by now, you are a pro at sewing these little quadrants together!! Gather your remaining 4 Colored Squares, 8 matching colored/white HST's and 4 white squares and lay them out into 4 sets as follows.

Sew the quadrants together just like before, sewing the squares into rows first, pressing in opposite directions, and then sewing the top and bottom row together and pressing the seam open. As always, use a 1/4" seam and be sure to nest your seams.

And then you have 4 fantastic corner blocks!

Which means, you are ready to sew the entire block together!!! Lay your pieces out as follows.

Place the right hand blocks in each row onto the center blocks with right sides together. Align your seams and pin in place. Repeat for the left hand blocks as well. Sew a 1/4" seam along all the pinned edges. Press the seams open.

And you should now have 3 fantastic rows. Only 2 more seams to go!!

Place the top row onto the center row with right sides together and once again align and pin each seam. Repeat for the bottom row onto the center row as well. Sew a 1/4" seam along each of the pinned edges. Press the seams open.

Now just sit back and enjoy your fantastic Star Value block!!!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!!! I really had so much fun designing and creating it and hope you will as well!!! If you do create a Star Value block I would love to see it . . . Just add it to my Inspired by Happy Quilting Flickr Group or email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or share on social media with #happyquiltingwithmc. I can't wait to check it out!!

And just so you can see what it looks like in a repeat . . . here is the finished quilt!!!

This is a 3 x 4 layout, so only 12 blocks of the 20" size which makes a great lap quilt at 60" x 80" ;) So let's get to some serious scrap busting!!!

And never fear, I haven't forgotten today's giveaway!!! I will send that lucky winner their choice of 3 of my patterns!!

How do you enter?? Simple, just leave me a comment telling me your favorite color, or color combo if you can't pick just one :) I will pick a winner May 9th and announce the winner shortly after :)

Oh, and by the way, if you are visiting Happy Quilting for the first time, Welcome!! I hope you will stay a while and check things out. I have lots of fun tutorials and a Celebrate Mom event starting next week with lots of fabulous guest bloggers and giveaways!!

Gorgeous block. Thanks for the tut. You always make it look so easy. My favourite colour is blue and all of it's variations. Thanks for sharing and for the opportunity on the draw.bonnielarson58@gmail.com

My fav it is blue/ orange.. I GOT MODERN PATCHWORK AND YOUR SUPER CUTE...... IT WAS FUN SEEING SOME OF THE PICS AND INSIDE MY GOODNESS THE BEAUTIFUL QUILTS AND ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS.. I think I relate putting faces with Guilts and Patterns, Although I cant read patterns to well. but where I lack in hine site I make up in creativity. I will make your block and share it ... I dont have scraps but some cute FQS to cute. CONGRATS FROM TEXAS..

I love Orange and Black as that is the color of my Oklahoma State Cowboys! But, I have seen some quilts in the black, white, yellow color scheme and they are so beautiful! Thanks for the great tutorial and the fantastic give-a-way!

I can't help sneaking green into almost every quilt. I used one of Marie's patterns to make a block for the Quilts for Boston effort by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild to provide quilts for victims of the Marathon bombing. Thank you.

Oh, Girl! You knocked it out of the park with this one - it's gorgeous! Thank you too for working up the numbers for the various sizes - very generous and sweet of you! This DOES look like the perfect scrap buster, and feel the urge to sweep everything off of the sewing table and pull scraps!I love Marie's books and am looking forward to this newest one. Thank you for the lovely giveaway...and the great block tutorial!Favorite color? Yikes! I'm a scrappy kind of girl so everything goes!

Love your block Melissa! Scrappy is my favorite way to quilt, so this one will be getting some love from me real soon :*) My favorite color combo right now is aqua and lime green with a little gray thrown in - YUM!!!

I was so excited for this book to come out! I just have to find the time to read it now. Love that block with all the secondary possibilities. My favorite color has always been purple, but I'm loving all the teal combos that are popular right now. So many colors so little play time :)

I have been using Design Seeds on Facebook to help me develop some an inspiration book of color combinations that I like. I even used some of my inspiration photos to help me choose fabrics last week while in Paducah!

Burnt oranges and browns are my fav! Thank you for a wonderful tutorial. You crack me up with getting "your scrap busting groove on" LOL! I prefer your tutorials over a lot that I see because you present it in such an approachable manner (if that makes sense). Plus I know you have the little ones, so quilting and "Mom-ing" is doable. And when I can't do both, I pop in and watch you do it for inspiration!!

Blue is my favorite color any blue but in Quilts I adore a medium blue. Funny that blue is my favorite color but I have only a couple of blue quilts. Lots of other colors seem to dominate my quilts. Thanks for the give away

Right now I seem to be on a red kick, but I really like green too. I'm working on Miss Rosie's Toulouse pattern and it is basically red and green. Your Star Value block is going to be great to help me use up all those 2 1/2" strips I have. Thanks for the chance to win!

I absolutely love your block, thanks so much for sharing it with us. My favorite color is Purple and I love combinations of all kinds of bright, cheery fabrics. They always make me smile :o) Thanks again, Hugs...

I love your pattern! I downloaded it from Craftsy. Thanks so much. I love every color of turquoise, aqua, teal, blue-green and related in that family...so calming and reminds me so much of the ocean, which I love.

thanks to my private connection with god i realize women and men have been created similarly but 1 question i could never find the reply to is why you'll find far more males functioning as doctors, engineers and scientists? the ratio men:females is about ninety nine:one which can be quite said. the ratio ought to happen to be one:1 or at the least 2:1 but no. why is this?

I do love Pink and purple Melissa- I love your blog and your patterns too- This looks like a terrific book- your winner is going to love it when you choose their name.Thanks so much for participating in the blog hop.Regards from Alberta,Anna

My favorite color is dark blue or deep red. Not together, though. I just have two favorite colors. I don't like them for quilting, though, oddly. For quilting, I prefer black and white, or pink and grey. Or orange, green, and yellow is the color combo I have on the brain.

I love your blog. I have been here many times and love all the stuff you make. My favorite color combo is red and white. Would love to make a totally red and white quilt someday. I love your block and can't wait to try it.

I love the pattern soooooo much that I am asking the girls in my bee to make the 16" block for me next month. I've sent them all the link to your blog and the quilting gallery blog. It is such a great use up your favourite scraps.

I really find it hard building cute blocks and I find complicated with the measuring and cutting part. But anyway, thanks a lot for the tips and information. It really helped me a lot understand more of the beauty of it. I’ll give myself a second try and this will be the last.

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